I thought cutting corners on heat treatment saved time, until it cost me a project

Rushing the quench led to stress fractures in a custom sword. Now I schedule extra days for thermal cycles without exception.

3 comments

3 Comments

blairh961mo ago

Honestly people forget that proper heat treating time is actually faster in the long run. How many hours did you spend on that sword before the quench failed?

wendyprice1mo ago

Feel that pain deep in my soul lol. Watched a blade I'd spent three full days filing and shaping just turn into a pretzel in the oil. All that careful work gone in a few seconds because I rushed the soak. Blair's totally right, taking that extra twenty minutes feels like forever but it saves you from the worst kind of heartbreak.

victor2091mo ago

Turn into a pretzel" is such a perfect way to put it. That visual alone is enough to make me double check my own soak times every single time now. There's just this awful moment where you see the warp start and you know there's no going back. Blair's point about it being faster in the long run is so true, but man, in the moment those extra minutes feel like torture.